Previous work at Amphibian: Babette’s Feast (2019)

Megan Haratine is thrilled to be back onstage at Amphibian, last seen here in Babette’s Feast and the staged reading of C22. She finds working on The Pleasure Trials particularly meaningful in light of her last project this past fall, a play at Echo Theatre Company about the women’s suffrage movement. Getting to work with a dynamic group of women on another new play is a privilege she does not take lightly as the pandemic drones on, threatening the livelihood of artists everywhere. Megan has also been seen onstage fairly recently at Stage West and WaterTower Theatre and is an Assistant Professor in UTA’s Department of Theatre and Dance. Currently she serves as the current Texas Chair for KCACTF Region 6 and is working towards certification in Knight-Thompson Speechwork. Her MFA in Acting is from the University of Delaware’s PTTP and she wonders how one acquires an MFA in the art of Parenting as she and her husband, Richie, raise some pretty awesome kiddos during this crazy time. I love you, my family! Special shout out to my mama whose love and support helps keep me going!

Shyama Nithiananda is a Dallas-based playwright, director, dramaturg, and actor. Her writing was most recently featured in the 2021 New Visions, New Voices festival at Southern Methodist University, where she earned her BFA in Theatre Studies with emphases in acting, directing, and playwriting. She is thrilled to participate in SparkFest as a playwright after appearing as an actor in SparkFest in 2021 and 2022. Recent credits include He’s Born, He’s Borne at Undermain Theatre (dramaturg / associate director), reading of LITTLELAMB at Teatro Dallas (director), and Guards at the Taj at Stage West (director).

Kelsey Milbourn (AEA) is a KS native and TCU graduate with a BFA in musical theatre and independent study in modern dance. Kelsey is adjunct faculty for the BFA theatre program at TCU and is an actor and dance/fight/intimacy choreographer in the DFW area as well as a stilts instructor for Amphibians Tadpoles for 4 years. Some of their recent acting and choreo work includes projects at Stage West, Circle Theatre, DTC, Undermain Theatre, Amphibian Stage Productions, WaterTower, Danspiek NYC, and Cape Fear Regional. They’ve been an artistic associate of the Trinity Shakespeare Festival for a decade and a proud recipient of the Tarrant County Theatre League award.

Previous Work at Amphibian: Egress (2021)

Sky Williams (she/her) is so thankful to return to Amphibian Stage as the understudy for The Pleasure Trials. She made her Amphibian debut in Egress in October 2021. Williams is a Column award winning honor’s graduate from Stephen F Austin State University where she earned her Bachelor’s in Theatre with a minor in ASL Educational Interpreting. Her most recent theatre credits include: 9 to 5 at NTPA, Godspell at WaterTower Theater, In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) and The Revolutionists for Imprint Theatreworks, The Cake, The Legend of Georgia McBride, and Aida for Uptown Players, Daylight, Hot Mikado, and Avenue Q at Theatre Three, Nunsense at Brick Road Theatre, Finding Myself in Bed for Proper Hijinx Productions, The Hollow, How the Other Half Loves, and Puss in Boots at Theatre Britain, and DCT’s National Tours of Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters and Stuart Little, along with many others. This Spring, Williams will be back on the stage in the regional premiere of What to Send Up When it Goes Down at Stage West Theatre. Sky is immensely grateful to bring art to life on the stage during these trying times. “Knowing your power is what creates humility. Not knowing your power is what creates insecurity” – Nayyirah Waheed

IG:@officialskywilliams

Amphibian Stage Debut!

I direct new plays, re-imagined classical texts, musicals and opera. I like casting folks of all ages, races, genders and body types. I like working with writers. I like creating a writing/performance/design team who are in it to win it. I like making shows that are athletic, experimental, funny and gut wrenching. I want the audience to go on the journey that sports fans take when their underdog team fumbles and flails and then triumphs unexpectedly at the last minute.

My first play Shape won an NEA Grant, was named to the 2020 Kilroys List and premiered to fantastic reviews under my direction at The Kitchen Theatre in NY in June, 2021. My second play, In Search of the Sublime, was commissioned by Stage West in Fort Worth, TX, and premiered under my direction there in March, 2021 and was live streamed to an international audience. BADASS right?

Previous work at Amphibian: The Pleasure Trials (Play Development, 2016) Egress (2021)

SARAH SALTWICK is a playwright based in Austin, TX, a graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin and was a Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. Her play EGRESS, co-written with Melissa Crespo, had its world premiere production at Amphibian Stage this October and will be produced by Salt Lake Acting Company this February. Sarah’s plays have been recently been produced or developed by , Cleveland Playhouse, the Lark, the Vortex, Scriptworks, groundswell theatre company, Hyde Park Theater, Kitchen Dog Theater, the Icicle Creek Theater Festival, WildClaw Horror Theater, University of Texas at Austin, Weber State University, Barnyard Theater.  She is also a Co-Director of Holden & Arts Associates, a theatrical booking agency that specializes in exceptional performances for youth and family audiences. She shares her home with her husband, musician and visual artist Toto Miranda, their daughter Beatrix, and their cat Lulu. You can find Sarah’s plays at on the New Play Exchange.

Yoon is an award-winning scenic and costume designer working internationally, including London’s West End, Norway, South Korea, Japan, and the USA. Don Giovanni (Welsh National Opera), Candide (Tokyo), Disconnect (Winner Bay Area Theatre Critics Award), Closer (Seoul), Once on This Island (PTC), The Wolves (ATL), Oedipus El Rey (SDR), Once (PTC), The Great Gatsby (ATC), The Importance of Being Earnest (ATC), Emma, The Sunshine Boys, Evita, A Little Night Music, Putting It Together, Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Magic Flute, Scapin, and Private Lives. London’s West End: Gone with the Wind, Birdsong, Skellig, Equus, Three Thousand Troubled Threads (Edinburgh International Festival), the world premiere productions of Caridad Svich’s Archipelago, Howard Barker’s Wounds to the Face, and Jeff Talbott’s The Messenger (PTC). She is Professor at UNCSA, an active diversity committee member, and a board member representative for USA Local 829 and Wingspace. www.yoonbae.com

Before moving to The United States, Shahrzad Mazaheri worked professionally as a costume designer and associate designer for theatre and movies in Iran for more than 7 years. Her most recent designs in DFW were costumes for the production of “A Little Less Lonely” with Dallas Public Works Dallas at Dallas Theatre Center, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at SMU Meadows School of the Arts, and the world premier of “The Merit System” at Teatro Dallas. She is currently a graduate student at SMU in Theatre Stage Design. She also holds an MFA in Textile and Fashion Design.

Hailey has worked in Stage Management in DFW since 2015. Her previous work includes Casa Manana, the Actors Conservatory Theatre, The Classics Theatre Project, Stagewest, Imprint Theatreworks: First Impressions Festival, Altered Shakespeare, Prism Movement Theatre, Watertower Theatre, Ochre House Theatre, Amphibian Stage & Shakespeare Dallas. She holds a bachelor of arts in Theatrical Performance.

David Lanza has been sound designing in DFW for some time now, is excited to still be sound designing, and looks forward to sound designing more in the future.  He also loves the Phibs always and forever.  Pro-tip: eat half of your cookie now, and save the other half for a late night snack after the show.  Follow David Lanza Audio on Facebook or go to www.DavidLanzaAudio.com to learn more.  Or look up my LiveJournal I had in high school. Love to Nikki, Maggie, Peter, and the Oxford comma.

Valos is an actor, improviser, stage manager, fight director and general jack-of-all-trades. He had the pleasure of working with Amphibian Stage this past summer as stage manager for Close to Home, part of Amphibian’s Spark Fest 2021. Valos is also a senior at the University of Texas at Arlington, pursuing a BFA in Theatre Arts – Design & Technology, and as part of the Maverick Theatre Company, he has been stage manager for See What I Wanna See, Spring Awakening, and Moving Forward: A Devised Piece. In addition to UTA, Valos has studied and trained with Upright Citizens Brigade, The Society of American Fight Directors, Intimacy Directors & Choreographers, and HB Studio, and he has had the privilege of working with companies like Scarborough Renaissance Festival, Nickelodeon, and Dude Perfect

Evan is a Fort Worth-based actor, photographer, and designer. His work has been seen at the Dallas Theater Center, Second Thought Theatre, Undermain Theatre, Stage West Theatre, Trinity Shakespeare Festival, Amphibian Stage, and more. Evan holds a BFA in Acting from Texas Christian University. Evan is represented by the Kim Dawson Agency.